The present invention uses global computer networks, such as the Internet to provide students with additional help with their studies. The Internet comprises a large number of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communication links. The Internet utilizes the TCP/IP suite of protocols, which are well-known in the art of computer networking. TCP/IP is an acronym for “Transport Control Protocol/Interface Program,” a software protocol developed by the Department of Defense for communication between computers.
The interconnected computers exchange information using various services, such as electronic mail, Gopher, and the World Wide Web (“WWW”). The WWW service allows server computer systems (i.e., web server or web site) to send graphical web pages of information to remote client computer systems. A remote client computer system can then display the web pages.
Each resource, (e.g., computer or web page) of the WWW is uniquely identifiable by a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). To view a specific web page, a client computer system specifies the URL for that web page in a request (e.g., a HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) request). The request is forwarded to the web server that supports that web page. When that web server receives the request, it sends that web page to the client computer system. When the client computer system receives that web page, it typically displays the web page using a browser. A browser is a special-purpose application program that effects the requesting and displaying of web pages.
Currently, web pages are typically defined using HyperText Markup Language (“HTML”). HTML provides a standard set of tags that define how a web page is to be displayed. When a user indicates to the browser to display a web page, the browser sends a request to the server computer system to transfer to the client computer system an HTML document that defines the web page. When the requested HTML document is received by the client computer system, the browser displays the web page as defined by the HTML document. The HTML document contains various tags that control the displaying of text, graphics, controls, and other features. The HTML document may contain URLs of other Web pages and web sites available on that server computer system or other server computer systems.
Localized and globalized computers are growing and beginning to be the primary means of accessing information. The World Wide Web (“WWW”), for example, provides all who have access to it with vast amounts of information, with new information being added every second of every day. The WWW contains web sites with information about everything from South American rain forests to health and medicine to automobile sales.
The WWW began as a tool that allowed information to be accessible over a network for educational purposes. Initially, it was primarily used by universities and government entities for the purpose of sharing information. Today, it is still used most often as a means of finding and sharing information, and its most important objective is still to educate people.
The WWW contains many educational web sites with topical information for students. For example, Educational web sites, such as Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB.COM) or the Teens section of ABOUT.COM, contain generalized information about different topics to help students gain knowledge and learn.
Thus, the WWW has made it possible to provide students with information twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with few, if any, interruptions in service. That notwithstanding, there are few online resources that provide students with targeted information to assist them with their math, physics and sciences homework and to help them improve their skills therein. Furthermore, there are no online resources for providing students with instantaneous solutions to the problems in their textbooks.
In fact, there are few resources of any kind presently available that provide people with instantaneous solutions and answers to textbook problems and problem solving techniques. Teacher manuals often include solutions to the problems in student textbooks, but are not usually available to students. Tutors and teachers can also assist students with solving problems, but they are not constantly available to students, and tutors can cost as much as $75.00 per hour in many areas of the United States, and are for that reason, inaccessible to the majority of students. The textbooks themselves usually have explanations and examples, but all problems are different and so are all students. Even with the explanations and examples from a textbook, a student may not be able to understand a particular problem nor be able to determine its solution. Even scientific calculators are inadequate because 1) they require the student to input the problem, which can be a daunting exercise in itself, 2) they do not provide a step-by-step solution to the problem, 3) they are often very complicated and difficult to use and understand, and 4) they are expensive, and many students cannot afford them.
One educational resource, Pinkmonkey.com, provides an educational environment for primary school students. It provides students with study guides, reference materials, a library of books available online, and various other helpful resources. It does not, however, provide students with solutions to specific problems, nor does it provide a way to teach students how to solve particular types of problems. It is also incapable of searching for particular types of problems based on certain criteria provided by the student.
Another education resource, Webmath.com, is composed of math “fill-in-forms”. A student can type into the math fill-in-form the math problem they are working on, and a math program will attempt to solve the problem for the student. The math programs in Webmath.com also provide step-by-step solutions to the problems. But, again, Webmath.com cannot solve problems unless the student undertakes the tedious and time-consuming task of inputting the math problem. Because math symbols are not on most computer keyboards, this can be very time-consuming, especially with long and complicated math problems. Like Pinkmonkey.com, Webmath.com does not provide a way of searching out specific types of problems based on criteria provided by the student. Furthermore, there are no resources comparable to Webmath.com for chemistry, physics, and physical science.
Not all students are created equal, and this difference in ability creates a problem for many students who are either overly challenged or unchallenged by the curriculum and their teachers. For those who are falling behind, especially in the math and sciences, even the WWW currently does not provide sufficient educational resources. Thus, a student who does not understand a math problem, for example, has no choice but to seek assistance from parents, teachers or tutors. Typically, even educated parents themselves do not understand the problems, and teachers and tutors are often not accessible when the student needs them. The student has no choice but to struggle to no avail, or give up on the problem entirely.
Another problem is that teachers are also not created equal. Thirty percent of teachers do not even have a minor in the subject they teach. Thus, many teachers are unqualified to teach the subjects that they are assigned, and this leaves students unprepared to confront the problems that they are asked to do for homework, most of which come straight out of textbooks. And when they go home, there is often nobody there to help them when they arrive at a problem that they do not understand and cannot solve without assistance.
The described circumstances lead many children to fear or dislike particular subjects with which they are struggling. This, in turn, causes lowered self-esteem and lower grades in students that could do well in those subjects if given the proper education and resources.
Individually solving each question of each textbook used in, for example, the United States, is an unthinkable task amounting to an enormous amount of data. This is the primary reason why there currently is no Internet web site that provides solutions to the problems of a vast number of textbooks.
Therefore, a need exists for a way of providing solutions to textbook problems that do not require individually solving each problem. A need also exists for computerized systems, methods, and apparatus for providing a solution to a given problem over a global computer network. A need also exists for online resources that can search for and provide students with specific problem types targeted at those specific areas with which they are having trouble.